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(#) Image without `contentDescription`

!!! WARNING: Image without `contentDescription`
   This is a warning.

Id
:   `ContentDescription`
Summary
:   Image without `contentDescription`
Severity
:   Warning
Category
:   Accessibility
Platform
:   Android
Vendor
:   Android Open Source Project
Feedback
:   https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=192708
Since
:   Initial
Affects
:   Resource files
Editing
:   This check runs on the fly in the IDE editor
See
:   https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/accessibility/apps#special-cases
Implementation
:   [Source Code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-checks/src/main/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/AccessibilityDetector.java)
Tests
:   [Source Code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-tests/src/test/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/AccessibilityDetectorTest.java)
Copyright Year
:   2011

Non-textual widgets like ImageViews and ImageButtons should use the
`contentDescription` attribute to specify a textual description of the
widget such that screen readers and other accessibility tools can
adequately describe the user interface.

Note that elements in application screens that are purely decorative and
do not provide any content or enable a user action should not have
accessibility content descriptions. In this case, set their descriptions
to `@null`. If your app's minSdkVersion is 16 or higher, you can instead
set these graphical elements' `android:importantForAccessibility`
attributes to `no`.

Note that for text fields, you should not set both the `hint` and the
`contentDescription` attributes since the hint will never be shown. Just
set the `hint`.

!!! Tip
   This lint check has an associated quickfix available in the IDE.

(##) Example

Here is an example of lint warnings produced by this check:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~text
res/layout/accessibility.xml:4:Warning: Missing `contentDescription`
attribute on image [ContentDescription]
    &lt;ImageView android:id="@+id/android_logo" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/android_button" android:focusable="false" android:clickable="false" android:layout_weight="1.0" /&gt;
     ---------
res/layout/accessibility.xml:5:Warning: Missing `contentDescription`
attribute on image [ContentDescription]
    &lt;ImageButton android:importantForAccessibility="yes" android:id="@+id/android_logo2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/android_button" android:focusable="false" android:clickable="false" android:layout_weight="1.0" /&gt;
     -----------
res/layout/accessibility.xml:9:Warning: Do not set both
`contentDescription` and `hint`: the `contentDescription` will mask the
`hint` [ContentDescription]
    &lt;EditText android:hint="@string/label" android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="@string/label" /&gt;
                                                                             ------------------------------------------
res/layout/accessibility.xml:12:Warning: Empty `contentDescription`
attribute on image [ContentDescription]
    &lt;ImageButton android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="TODO" /&gt;
                                                   ---------------------------------
res/layout/accessibility.xml:13:Warning: Empty `contentDescription`
attribute on image [ContentDescription]
    &lt;ImageButton android:id="@+id/summary2" android:contentDescription="" /&gt;
                                            -----------------------------
res/layout/accessibility.xml:14:Warning: Empty `contentDescription`
attribute on image [ContentDescription]
    &lt;ImageButton android:id="@+id/summary3" android:contentDescription="TODO" /&gt;
                                            ---------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the source file referenced above:

`res/layout/accessibility.xml`:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~xml linenumbers
&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
&lt;LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" android:id="@+id/newlinear" android:orientation="vertical" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="match_parent"&gt;
    &lt;Button android:text="Button" android:id="@+id/button1" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"&gt;&lt;/Button&gt;
    &lt;ImageView android:id="@+id/android_logo" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/android_button" android:focusable="false" android:clickable="false" android:layout_weight="1.0" /&gt;
    &lt;ImageButton android:importantForAccessibility="yes" android:id="@+id/android_logo2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/android_button" android:focusable="false" android:clickable="false" android:layout_weight="1.0" /&gt;
    &lt;Button android:text="Button" android:id="@+id/button2" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content"&gt;&lt;/Button&gt;
    &lt;Button android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="@string/label" /&gt;
    &lt;ImageButton android:importantForAccessibility="no" android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="wrap_content" android:src="@drawable/android_button" android:focusable="false" android:clickable="false" android:layout_weight="1.0" /&gt;
    &lt;EditText android:hint="@string/label" android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="@string/label" /&gt;
    &lt;EditText android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="@string/label" /&gt;
    &lt;EditText tools:ignore="ContentDescription" android:hint="@string/label" android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="@string/label" /&gt;
    &lt;ImageButton android:id="@+android:id/summary" android:contentDescription="TODO" /&gt;
    &lt;ImageButton android:id="@+id/summary2" android:contentDescription="" /&gt;
    &lt;ImageButton android:id="@+id/summary3" android:contentDescription="TODO" /&gt;
&lt;/LinearLayout&gt;
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can also visit the
[source code](https://cs.android.com/android-studio/platform/tools/base/+/mirror-goog-studio-main:lint/libs/lint-tests/src/test/java/com/android/tools/lint/checks/AccessibilityDetectorTest.java)
for the unit tests for this check to see additional scenarios.

The above example was automatically extracted from the first unit test
found for this lint check, `AccessibilityDetector.testAccessibility`.
To report a problem with this extracted sample, visit
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/new?component=192708.

(##) Suppressing

You can suppress false positives using one of the following mechanisms:

* Adding the suppression attribute `tools:ignore="ContentDescription"`
  on the problematic XML element (or one of its enclosing elements).
  You may also need to add the following namespace declaration on the
  root element in the XML file if it's not already there:
  `xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"`.

  ```xml
  &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
  &lt;ImageButton xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
      tools:ignore="ContentDescription" ...&gt;
    ...
  &lt;/ImageButton&gt;
  ```

* Using a special `lint.xml` file in the source tree which turns off
  the check in that folder and any sub folder. A simple file might look
  like this:
  ```xml
  &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
  &lt;lint&gt;
      &lt;issue id="ContentDescription" severity="ignore" /&gt;
  &lt;/lint&gt;
  ```
  Instead of `ignore` you can also change the severity here, for
  example from `error` to `warning`. You can find additional
  documentation on how to filter issues by path, regular expression and
  so on
  [here](https://googlesamples.github.io/android-custom-lint-rules/usage/lintxml.md.html).

* In Gradle projects, using the DSL syntax to configure lint. For
  example, you can use something like
  ```gradle
  lintOptions {
      disable 'ContentDescription'
  }
  ```
  In Android projects this should be nested inside an `android { }`
  block.

* For manual invocations of `lint`, using the `--ignore` flag:
  ```
  $ lint --ignore ContentDescription ...`
  ```

* Last, but not least, using baselines, as discussed
  [here](https://googlesamples.github.io/android-custom-lint-rules/usage/baselines.md.html).

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